The drama of season last dive 2008

I guess I really have to say grace and give thanks to be able to blog about the season last dive for year 2008.

I was almost drowned not once but twice during the trip to Pulau Dayang.

Firstly, I was almost drowned at Dayang Tip. A strong undercurrent swept the group of some 9 of us some 50metres down under the ocean.

We were doing a free descend, and I suddenly felt weird because I somehow felt that I was descending faster than I normally would. Bearing in mind that I weight a mere 40kg with 2 weights attached. So I promptly checked my gauge, to my horror! I was left with 100bar of air which I started with 200bar. It was barely 5 minutes into the dive. And what shocked me more was when I saw 50m on the depth Gauge. Basic instinct kicked in for me to fin upwards quickly, at the same time looked around franticly for my dive buddy - Junaida.

Suddenly, my instructor caught hold of my hand and handed me Gareth's hand which I promptly secured under my armpit and held his hand with my dear life (which Gareth thot was the devils advocate). Then came Jun's hand which I too held it tightly on my right and fin upwards as fast as I could with all my might!

It was all bubbly cuz I saw nothing but bubbles, finning with all my might it was a long long time before I saw white light instead of patches of grey with bubbles.

Honestly, I thot I was going to die. But my mind was blank while the others claimed that they had flash backs. I seriously thot, if I was to die. I might as well drift off to sleep.

Once at the surface, waves were strong and I only had the instinct to hold on to as many people as possible, I do not want myself or anyone else to drift away by themselves. Maybe it is more of a selfish reason that I didnt want to drift away alone all by myself. >.<

It felt like years when we were floating at the surface, luckily Gloria and Jun were sane enough to get everyone organised by asking everyone to hang on to each other forming a circle, which I was hanging on to 3 persons at the same time. Jun by her BCD, Nurruddin and Jean by their fingers *lol* hung on to them as tightly as possible.

Jean felt sick and started to vommit, I followed suit some ten to fifteen minutes later. And sensing that I was losing my grip, Gloria had me lying on my back on my BCD, kept talking and singing to me while Jun kept irritating the hell out of me trying to pick a fight to prevent me from drifting to sleep. From then all was hazy, as I kept wondering what kept the boat from coming to pick us, when it finally did, I had to be towed back by Gloria and the rest of the people on board hurled me up to the boat like a rag doll as I was already pale and turning purple by then.

I remembered David turning on the oxygen tank while Jerry asked me to squeese his fingers with all my might. I was losing body heat faster than the rest even thou I had my rash guard and wetsuit on. Probably due to my small frame. Once back at the resort, I remembed David hitting me to get a respond, when I hit him back he knew that I was very much alive.

My relief was that all ends well, came back alive. Oh.. Maybe there's something I can celebrate about. For I clipped on my pointer & Camera to my BCD before descending. The best part was prolly the fact that I paid $50 for my PT-034 Housing for my Olympus µ740 camera which i bought for $180 right after, survived the 52+m depth with me.

We were told not to go diving at night and the following day. By the next day, our instructor told us after looking at tables and calculations we were good to dive after some 17 hours from the bounce dive.

But I never expect that I would encounter another near drowning incident the following day. I was put in the water with my instructor some 50m away. No matter how hard I tried i could not get close to the group of divers. Before I knew it, the boat was some 25m away from me as well!

So with all my might I finned towards my instructor, now I realised that I was going no where and I yelled at the top of my lungs calling out to my instructor that I could not make it anymore. At this juncture, the boat turned back and I am surly grateful that David reacted so well jumped in immediately and towed me back to the boat.

Some question to ponder upon, why is it that some received the same professional training while one is certified could be so selfish to only cared about oneself. If having mask and regulator in place is the way, why weren't we being advised to do the same. And how could a trainee be sharper than a person who is already certified. i.e. certified person did not see a problem having me alone in the water when group of divers are some good 50m away, buddy not ready to jump in and nobody could see me when I was in the water - choppy waters we are talking about. I do question about professional ethics especially when someone is not doing their job properly, putting life of others at risk. Thumbs up to Eugene and David for reacting so well.

Some 120 pictures put together by me in a photobook using iPhoto.